The mother of a 19-year-old accused of killing two people and himself at a Maryland mall told reporters that her son was a "gentle, sweet kid."

In the conversation, recorded Sunday by a reporter for radio station WNEW, the woman says Darion Aguilar never had a gun before and was a gentle teenager.

"If you were to go into his room you would see what a gentle, sweet kid he was," she says.

She says she cannot understand what happened and that she doesn't think her 19-year-old son knew the victims.

She adds that she feels for the parents of 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson, who were shot dead with a shotgun on Saturday morning at the busy Columbia mall.

ABC also reported the mother's comments.

The woman's revelations come as police look into a journal written by Aguilar. The diary contains typical teenage writings about acne and rejection by girls, but nothing to indicate he was depressed, a family friend said Monday.

Family friend Ellis Cropper, who is serving as a spokesman for Aguilar's mother, told CNN on Monday that police reviewed the journal after the mother called police to file a missing person report.

Cropper said Aguilar's mother, with whom he was close, doesn't think he was dating anyone.

Police have said only that Aguilar's journal expressed "general unhappiness with his life."

According to police, Aguilar took a taxi to The Mall in Columbia on Saturday morning and then fired as many as nine shots from a Mossberg 500 shotgun into a skateboard apparel shop, killing Benlolo and Johnson before fatally shooting himself.

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Photos: Shooting at Maryland mall14 photos

Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – Police evacuate employees and patrons from the Columbia Town Center Mall after a shooting resulting in fatalities there on January 25 in Columbia, Maryland.

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Photos: Shooting at Maryland mall14 photos

Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – The Maryland State Police medivac flys over the mall.

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Photos: Shooting at Maryland mall14 photos

Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – Police escort people from the mall as they assist in evacuations.

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Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – People leave the mall as it is evacuated after the shooting.

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Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – The area outside the mall is seen after the shooting.

Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – Maryland State Police officers gear up as civilians depart Columbia Mall after the shooting.

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Photos: Shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland – Police said at least three people were killed in the shooting.

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EXPAND GALLERY

On Saturday, a federal official briefed on the shooting told CNN that preliminary information suggested the gunman aimed only at the two victims, perhaps indicating it was an isolated situation and not a wider shooting spree.

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"I know there's a lot of interest in the motive for this, and I have as much interest in that as anybody," Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon said Sunday.

Aguilar was an avid skateboarder, Cropper said. As of now that's the only known link between him and the skate shop.

Prelude to the shooting

According to Cropper, here's what Aguilar's mother says happened before the shooting on Saturday:

Aguilar was scheduled to report to work for a 5:30 a.m. shift at Dunkin' Donuts, a job he had held since about September.

His mother offered to give him a ride to work, but he said he would get there on his own. Several hours later, she went to check on him, and the store manager said Aguilar had never showed up, according to Cropper.

The mother then called police to file a missing person report. When officers arrived at her home, she used a cell phone locating service to trace her son's phone.

It showed he was at the mall.

According to Cropper, police -- who were aware of the mall shooting -- then asked if Aguilar kept a journal.

Police later returned to the home and seized the journal, along with other potential evidence including computers and documents, according to McMahon, the police chief.

McMahon said Aguilar purchased the 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun in December and also had two homemade bombs in his backpack.

The victims

Benlolo was an assistant manager at Zumiez. She had worked there since November 2012, according to her Facebook page.

Her friend Evelyn McDonald said Benlolo, the mother of a small boy, was "just full of energy."

"She was so nice and just an amazing artist and just an amazing person inside and out," McDonald told CNN.

"She loved her son. She loved being a mother," McDonald said.

Johnson had worked at the store for about three months, according to his Facebook page.

Five people went to the hospital for treatment after the shooting. All were treated and released.

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Four suffered injuries in the chaos after the shooting. The other injured victim suffered a gunshot wound to the foot. Police said the woman wasn't in Zumiez; rather, she was on the first floor when she was hit.

The mall reopened Monday afternoon, but the Zumiez store will be closed indefinitely, according to a sign on the boarded up storefront.

Memorial sites will be set up outside the mall and in the food court, officials said.